{ SOMEWHAT sexual content but barely. Just a warning but this is a pretty big chapter as well and you'll see why ;) }
I tie my hair up in a tight ponytail as the final touch to my little disguise. I borrowed one of Elise's uniforms so I could sneak into Forrest's room. It sounded simple enough and would have worked for any other girl.
But me.
Romeo told me it usually worked because the guards didn't recognize them and that the palace was always hiring new staff. Now that I was in the selection, nonetheless one of the final four, it was going to be harder to sneak by. Which was also why I would need Elise. She didn't only clean my room, but she was in charge of cleaning both the prince's rooms. This I never knew and I was greatly surprised by that fact as well. Elise was the perfect cover up considering she was there everyday. That's a lot less suspicious.
"I don't know why you're doing this," Elise says as we exit my room. "And I don't know how you dragged Romeo into this," She places her hands on a cart carrying all her cleaning supplies and begins to walk toward the elevator. "But this seemed important and I owed him. I respect Prince Harlan's and Prince Forrest's request to be alone so I probably wouldn't have done this if you asked me."
I nod and folds my hands in front of me as the doors to the elevator close and we head to the top floor. Where all the royals lived.
"I know Elise and I'm sorry you have to. But if it wasn't important I wouldn't have asked."
Elise nods and gives me a sad look. "I understand, but what I just don't get is why you nor Romeo aren't telling me what's going on."
"Would you believe me if I told you it was for your own safety?" I ask hopefully and Elise rolls her eyes.
"Oh, I believe you. But that decision isn't up to you. It doesn't matter anyway. So what's the plan? Are you hiding under the cart?"
I shake my head and laugh a little. "Of course not. That's silly. You're supposed to act like you're training me while I keep my head down. I'm good at going unnoticed."
Elise sighs loudly before glancing over at me. "Here we go, Cordelia. If you give anything away I'll be fired."
"I won't let that happen." I argue and Elise gives me a look like she doesn't believe me.
The elevator doors open and I'm met with a disturbing silence. I'm about to ask why it's so quiet when Elise answers for me as we exit the elevator.
"The doors and walls are soundproof up here. Sometimes the royals and visiting royals need their privacy." Elise scrunches up her nose a little and I'm pretty sure I was doing the same.
We begin to walk down the hall and a guard comes into focus. We freeze and I can sense the tense posture coming from Elise. He gives us one sweep while I pretend to organize something. He then quickly carries on.
"You are so lucky you're my friend," Elise whispers to me and I smile a little. Yes. Yes I was pretty lucky.
"This is how it's going to go," I whisper to her as we make our way down the silent halls. "We are going to walk around once and pretend we're cleaning Harlan's room together, but you're going to stay around that area so I can go to Forrest's alone."
Elise raises an eyebrow. "Are you two, like, doing it now-"
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" I sigh with a little frustration.
Elise doesn't answer me but the way she carries herself let's me know she understands what she has to do. Elise guides the way around the empty hallways and makes sure a few guards see us before we stop by Harlan's room.
"This is where we part ways I'm assuming?" Elise asks and I shrug.
"See you later," I wink and take a basket of cleaning supplies.
"If you take too long I'm coming to get you," Elise says as I drift away.
This was the hardest part of it all. The easiest part would be getting past the guards making their rounds by his room. The hardest part about this will be getting passed Mikhail. I don't think he's paid much attention to any of the selected but then again he was working for Daisy.
I swiftly dodge the guards with my head down and approach his bedroom. Mikhail's tall frame wasn't hard to miss. As I neared the room Mikhail glanced slightly over at me which was strange to me because I was approaching form what was supposed to be a blind spot.
I try to control my pounding heart as I walk up to him. "Elise told me to-"
"Clean the room. Yeah. I know. Go ahead," Mikhail says in a clipped tone that covers up his heavy Russian accent. This felt a little too easy but I wasn't going to bring that up. I place my hand on the door handle and swiftly slide into the room.
The moment I actually focus on the area around me I hear a loud scream that sounded anything but terrified.
I would know that platinum blond hair anywhere and with it flying all over the place while she seemed to be bouncing up and down on Forrest. I felt like I was going to throw up. I open the door slightly and slam it just enough to catch their attention.
Daisy rolled over Forrest and onto the floor acting like she was caught by surprise. The reason why Mikhail let me in so easily clicked into place.
"Cordelia?" Forrest practically screams as he flings himself up from the bed.
"Sorry," I say sweetly. "Am I interrupting something?"
Daisy pops up her head from the end she fell off of and uses part of the sheet to cover herself up. "Oh, uh, Cordelia-"
"Save it." I glare at her as she scrambles to collect her things. Quite the actress.
"I'll uh, go now, I guess," Daisy says in a soft voice and as she passes me she shoots me a smirk. All I wanted to do was wipe that smile right off her face.
"What the hell are you doing in here!?" Forrest demands in a hard voice and I cross my arms and look away from his bare chest. I wasn't going to appreciate how good he looked with a shirt off because honestly I couldn't even look at him after witnessing what just happened.
"I came to talk to you but since you and Harlan requested that we not seek you out I had to take other measures."
"You obviously didn't register the part about us wanting privacy." Forrest snaps and between his anger toward me and the fact Daisy was so close to killing him, kind of made me want to cry. I don't cry. Cordelia doesn't cry.
Sure he was doing something that I would rather not have seen but I knew he's done it before. It's not like we were even dating or that I had the right to restrict him from these kinds of things. There's also the fact I'm out kissing his brother and doing things with his brother that doesn't justify me being jealous. I'm not that selfish either. The bigger picture was not to be upset about him sleeping with someone but that it was Daisy. I'm not sure what she was planning but she obviously knew I was going to pull something after I found out who she was.
I had to make sure this never happened again. Unless it was with a girl from his selection he wasn't safe with anyone else.
"Why are you so quiet?" He asks a little more timid. The fear in his voice was there but I wasn't sure why. There was nothing here to be afraid of.
"Well Forrest, what do you want me to say?" I ask, finally looking at him. There was a part of me that felt betrayed and sick to my stomach. Even though that part had no right to be there.
"Maybe explain why you are in my room?" He challenges.
I had to prevent this from happening again and I knew just the way to do it.
"I already told you. I needed to talk to you and it was important but never mind." I glance down at his very nice chest and back up at him. "Put a damn shirt on." I snap and he throws on the discarded shirt on the ground then wiggles into his pants while still in bed.
"Listen, I don't know why you're in here and I don't care if you're upset or anything because trust me this is not the first time this has happened." The slightly higher pitch to his voice tells me he's lying about the part on not caring about my feelings.
"Why won't you say anything? I swear this is the longest I have known you and you haven't spoken." He says lightly while getting out of the bed.
"You want me to lash out?" I ask crossing my arms over my chest. "Maybe throw something at you?"
Forrest pauses as he searches my face. "I'm not sure because anything is better than you looking at me like that."
His comment catches me off guard because I thought I was keeping my expression blank. "I'm not going to throw anything at you." I state, not really knowing how to respond.
"Cordelia, you can't exactly be upset. You are the one running around with my brother-"
"But he's not a random guard!" I suddenly shout and Forrest winces so slightly I almost miss it. "This would be a totally different situation if you were with one of the selected. I wouldn't hold it against you. But some random girl? My maid no less? What the hell is wrong with you?"
Forrest rolls his eyes with heavy annoyance. "A lot of things are wrong with me, Lila."
"Oh save it, Forrest." I scowl. "Don't play the 'I'm mentally unstable' card. You had full control over what happened. Do you want me to feel sorry for you?" I ask, shaking my head. "I will not pity you, Forrest. I never have. And you know why? It's because you dealt with it and you handled it-"
"What I did to myself was hardly handling it." he shoots back at me before I finish.
"It doesn't matter because it's the way you are." I say. "You can't change who you are, Forrest. You're the way you are today because of that mental illness and if you didn't have it you would be a completely different person." I hadn't realized that I lowered my voice. I was planning on yelling back and forth with him so he'd understand it was wrong to sleep with random woman who could kill him. But I couldn't tell Forrest that.
Forrest just stares me with an expression on his face I didn't recognize. I only saw this once and I'm pretty sure that was when he said he loved me. This was not a part of my plan.
"You're right." He says. "You are absolutely right but that doesn't change anything. I'm hurting right now, Lila. A lot. I lash out when I'm upset."
"Okay, yeah, I get it." I nod. "So you sleep with my maid to help yourself cope better? Yeah. Makes complete sense. Sorry to bother you." I say in a tight voice so he can tell I'm beyond livid with that answer. Who did he think he was? Well, the prince. But hat does not justify the actions of an heir.
I whip around to leave this room and just get away from him when I feel his hand grab my wrist. I immediately jerk it out of his grip and spin around to see he is standing dangerously close to me. "Don't. Touch me." I hiss and pain flashes across his features for only a second.
"I had a plan, you know." He says, staring me right in the eyes. "I told you I did. My plan was that I would detach from you and make you believe I've given up on you so you would realize how much you needed me."
"Love isn't a game, Forrest." I snap at him but apparently what I said wasn't what he wanted to hear.
"Really? I find that incredibly rich coming from you." Forrest gives me a cold look. "This entire selection is a game to you. A scheme so that once you turn eighteen you won't be rotting out on the streets."
"Only because you and the rest of Illéa treat it like one!" I argue and my voice is raised once again. But I couldn't help but feel like what I was saying was real. I tried to create a fight and manipulate it my way but at a certain point it became real. For me at least.
"That's how it goes, Lila." Forrest says angrily as he runs a hand through his hair. "Illéa needs a distraction every so generation. It's a tradition. What I meant by this being ironic coming from you was that I was talking about us. This thing we have, going back and forth, is a game to you. My brother and I are supposed to have each other's backs and I'm letting a girl manipulate him just because I love her."
"You don't love me. You obviously don't love me if you could do something like this." I say in a weird voice. Like I was trying to hold back...
"That isn't true." Forrest hisses. "I have been pining for you and haven't even touched any other girl because I felt guilty. But this once where I am weak and all my brother does it talk about wanting to marry you... Well, that's exactly it. I was weak. Not everyone can be as strong as you, Lila." He shakes his head. "Especially not me." Something flashes across his features that looks like realization. "You know what? No. I'm not having this fight with you. You have no right to make me feel bad about what happened because you've been making out with my brother and doing God only knows what ever since I called him out on television."
"I haven't been doing anything with him because of you." I point a finger at him. "You ruined everything! I can't even kiss Harlan or do anything with him because I wish it was you!"
"So you're blaming me for that too?" He accuses me with a certain edge to his voice. We were both pushing each other too far. One of us was going to say something we will regret but I couldn't stop. This is why I wrote in a fucking journal so my emotions wouldn't bottle up like this. But Daisy took that away from me. She took a lot of things away from me and that only made me angrier.
"It's not like I even had a chance with you." Forrest snaps. "You want your perfect little plan to work out so you can manipulate my brother. Someone like you isn't capable of love! I don't know why I ever thought that you could change. It's not like you could ever fall for me!"
And there it was. "Someone like you isn't capable of love!" That hurt way more than it should have. He could have stabbed me and it would have hurt less.
"It's not like you could ever fall for me!" I felt all that anger from the past and maybe even the anger from before I entered the selection just flow up to the top. He accused me of these things... about not caring and not loving and not ever being able to fall for him but the cold hard truth was- "I already HAVE!"
****
Hello lovelies! So just something quick; I just updated Royal Casualties and it's a chapter on Declan and he was the Mercenary that watched over Felicity until her public execution You also get to see a little inside The Mercenaries's base and their leader. You will get tons of looks with Royal Profanities but this is just a little teaser.
Just an FYI!